Not so long ago, Fairtrade meant bitter, expensive coffee bought by earnest idealists at hippy-run health shops for reasons of solidarity, not taste. Today, anyone who has bought a banana from Sainsbury’s, the Co-op or Waitrose has bought Fairtrade, as has anyone who has picked up a coffee from Starbucks, Greggs or AMT Coffee. Products carrying the recognisable blue, green and black logo are now good quality, affordable and mainstream. With the exception of a wobble in 2014 and 2015, sales have grown year-on-year since the scheme launched in the UK 25 years ago.
However, this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight, which starts on 26 February, will not be a straightforward celebration. Some of the biggest licensees of the Fairtrade mark are quitting the scheme and setting up in-house alternatives. Two of the biggest chocolate brands in the country – Dairy Milk and KitKat – are losing their Fairtrade status as Cadbury’s parent company Mondele¯ z rolls out its own Cocoa Life scheme and Nestlé promotes its Cocoa Plan. Sainsbury’s has already stopped certifying its ownlabel tea, leaving customers to trust the assurances that it is still fairly traded.
There are few issues of social justice greater than the need to give a fair deal to farmers and producers in developing countries. That so much food is sold cheaply to relatively rich Westerners while the people who grow it can’t afford basic health care and education is a moral scandal. Even so, few consumers or retailers in the West gave this injustice much thought before 1988, when the first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, was launched in the Netherlands.